Cigarettes are marketed in menthol and non-menthol flavors. The volatile nature of menthol tends to provide a "cool" taste to the tobacco smoke and is preferred by many smokers.
There are generally two procedures by which mentholation of cigarettes occurs. In the first procedure, menthol is positioned in the tobacco itself while, in the second procedure, the foil backed paper traditionally used to surround bundles of cigarettes in the package is impregnated with menthol, the menthol then permeating the tobacco by sublimation.
The second procedure is the one most widely used due to difficulties in controlling the direct addition of menthol to tobacco. However, the second procedure is not totally satisfactory since the current procedures used for impregnation of the foil-backed paper lead to inconsistent application of menthol and non-uniform concentration of menthol on the paper. There thus result inconsistent menthol concentrations in the cigarettes packaged using the menthol-impregnated foil-backed paper with consequential consumer dissatisfaction.